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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • You can use superconductors to create Josephson junctions, which can be used for standard logic operations (but also useful in quantum computers). These junctions are much more efficient and much faster than transistors.

    This particular superconductor will not be useful for transmitting power because the effect breaks down at very low current limits in this material, but it will be very useful for studying superconductors.

    So contrary to what you said, this will in fact not be useful for power transmission, but could be useful for CPUs and GPUs, and could lead to computers that are hundreds or thousands of times faster and more efficient than what we have today.

    To be fair this material may never see a practical use though.






  • TLDR; the front side is 23% efficient, and the rear side 20% efficient.

    They don’t actually give an overall efficiency but it implies a total of 43%. They compare this to typical panels also at 23% efficient, so it’s really remarkable if true. Other emerging solar tech is up to about 32% but if that could also benefit from multiple layers then total efficiency could become insane.

    Seems a little too good to be true, really, but great if so.

    Edit: Yeah, I don’t think these efficiencies can be added like that. I guess the overall efficiency will depend on how reflective the ground under the panels is, and they will extract 20% of that. Maybe that’s why they don’t give an overall rating.










  • Well of course, putting it on the open internet is very intentionally making it available for everyone to see. If you don’t want everyone to see it, don’t put it on the open internet. The issue is what people do with it, not whether they can access it. Copyright forbids distributing copyrighted data. The entire point of that it is so that you can make it available to be seen but protected from people copying it. However, there is no distribution or storage of copyrighted material with an LLM - there is no copy. I think OpenAI will be OK, but these things are never certain when the big lawyers are let loose.

    Distributing the training dataset, though, that could well be a problem.


  • Feral cats are usually pretty easy to distinguish. They’re often in poor condition; skinny, dull coats. They have outbreaks of cat flu when numbers build up, with gross mucus around their eyes, and they are mostly wildtype tabby. You know you have a problem when you start seeing them frequently stalking through the hedges and you start seeing the same cat causing trouble. They shit in the hay barns and cause toxoplasmosis-induced abortions in sheep and humans, not to mention the catastrophic impact on native birds. They need to be controlled. Taking every feral cat in to see if they are chipped is really not an option practically, financially or sensibly.

    Even so, mistakes are possible, but if at any point they directly start attacking livestock, like chickens, it really doesn’t matter if they are a pet or not. That’s the outcome for any animal hassling livestock, including dogs, and it doesn’t matter a jot if they are someone’s pet.



  • Ah, well I come from a more brutal rural background I guess, but if any cats cause me problems with the chickens it’s a cage trap followed by a .22 to the head through the bars of the cage. Quick, painless, no burden on animal control but understandably some people would be reluctant to do it. I do the same for friends with feral cat problems who are uncomfortable with the final act.

    I still find it abhorrent that people put animals in sacks and drown them. That really makes me feel ill (and angry), but I can swallow the lump in my throat when I have to dispatch a cat, sheep, chicken knowing that it’s the way that causes the least stress, and there really are no better options.

    Assuming you’re in the US (I’m not) it can’t be too hard to find a gun-toting maniac to do the deed! (sorry)

    I’ll take the downvotes for being evil now if you wish.